All of the following are signs of the times, I suppose… as the cliche goes. Collectively a dark one, for sure: and I’m sure the darkness is intentional.
Since you so often write and/or appeal to the lowest of low brows, write down to (at best) an 8th grade level, maybe you’ll get this, “Yous guys DO know theres bes Republicans challenging Trump, right?”
The outrage at how they’re being shut out should peg the plethora side to the public pissed off and journalist curiosity meter. Talk about snubbing candidates while obeying the wishes of the new party elites. Of course that phrase alone (“party elites”) leaves me laughing. Today, sometimes, the “elites” are like the children of some horrific genetic merging of Andy Kaufman, evil Don Rickles and Ann Coulter. “High class?” Uh, NO.
These days I find when people rant about elites it’s only because they want to BECOME them, and exterminate the competition. Mostly in rhetorical: less violent ways, though that is rapidly changing with the goosestep march of extremism.
So our MOST important problem is…
Not rich candidates.
Not Socialism.
Not even ordinary, nasty, over the top partisanship.
While all of these are important, selective outrage combined with selective silence is the biggest problem. When one president does something a previous one did, only more over the top, the first doesn’t justify the second. One ‘scandal’ doesn’t wash away another, and equivocation is 99% nonsense. All this gunk tends to be distraction politics, “Look over there, not at what we do!”
Those who compare ‘scandals:’ real and imagined, have a point: a point they usually go about missing in their comparisons. They miss the fact their very efforts prove something must be done in both/all cases. Instead their efforts are intended as oneupmanship, to muddy the waters, to create that all too convenient “why even bother?” atmosphere. You know: the one that covers the nation like infected blankets given to the natives many years ago. Killing off civility. Killing of concern. Infecting the people with a “Why care at all” attitude. Silence is guaranteed, if for no other reason than people are tired of talking about it.
Such is the intent.
VERY convenient for the corrupt.
Think about those you generally disagree with. Maybe what their outraged about and what you are outraged about share something in common? Wouldn’t it be great to get to the core of the problem and solve that instead of using scandal-baiting as a way to make scandals the norm: to be shrugged at?
Another side to this is NOT talking about what’s inconvenient. You know: how the media is joining the new Republican elite and silencing those who have declared against Trump? The media has discovered silence is the the golden ticket to keeping things as they are and not disturbing the norm when combating those who can cause them trouble in various forms. Howard Dean learned this in a more proactive way when he came out for breaking up the media conglomerates. Like the concept, or not, Dean’s coverage went from generally positive to outright nasty. Now it’s just ignore, ignore, ignore. Silence. Turn off the spotlight that shines on what we don’t want others to pay attention to. The new elite walk hand in hand with those who are supposed to be journalists, with the mainstream media.
The problem being with selective outrage combined with selective silence is they’re used to turn off the spotlight on what’s inconvenient. They’re used to make scandals last forever so everyone grows tired of talking about them. They darken our vision and redirect us to look somewhere else. Selective outrage and selective silence are used by the worst kinds politicians, pundits, and the media, to squash those who challenge the system, who want to make it better, want to highlight what needs to be changed. They creates the kind of tunnel vision that inspires those who wish to kill the messenger: the last, for now, being more metaphorical.
However, as damn unfortunate as it surely is, increasingly NOT so metaphorical.
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Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over 40 years. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks, and into the unseen cracks and crevasses, that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.
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